Article share tools

Shale firm Goodrich Petroleum files for bankruptcy protection

Getty Images

US shale oil firm Goodrich Petroleum has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with a plan to get $400m in debt off its balance sheet while it tries to outlast a slump in oil prices.

The Houston-based exploration and production company, which has shale assets in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, joined more than 40 energy-related companies that have sought court protection from creditors since oil prices plummeted 20 months ago.

Article share tools

Senegal creates new national airline

Senegal has created Air Senegal, a new national airline intended to replace the West African nation's now defunct, heavily indebted, carrier Senegal Airlines, minister of tourism and air transport Maimouna Ndoye Seck said.

The new company was formed with capital of 40 billion CFA francs ($69m).

Senegal revoked the air operator's certificate of the country's previous carrier Senegal Airlines, which ran up debts of over 100 billion CFA francs in less than five years of operation.

By the time it was shut down the airline, in which the state owned a minority stake, no longer possessed any aircraft.

Article share tools

Consumers 'want the real deal' for some pasta sauce

Fiona Dawson, the Global President of Mars Food, which makes Dolmio, says the company is working to make many of its foods healthier, but some pasta sauces will remain unchanged.

We're going to reduce our salt levels, sodium, sugar, fat. We're also going to put things in - so wholegrain and added veg. Now the labelling will adhere to strict nutritional guidelines and we will reformulate the majority of our products. There will be a small set, a small exception, of products which will sit outside it, such as our pesto, or our dairy-based products like lasagne sauce. Consumers are saying to us they want the real deal when they're buying into these."

Article share tools

NBA League approves rule to put ads on jerseys starting in 2017

Getty Images

National Basketball Association teams will be able to sell advertising space on their jerseys starting from the 2017-18 season, the league said.

The NBA, which is the first major North American sports league to announce plans to put ads on jerseys, said a small patch will appear on the front left of the game jerseys as part of a three-year pilot programme.

Article share tools

HMRC says 1,100 prosecutions of tax dodgers are coming up

Personal finance correspondent Simon Gompertz writes...

HMRC says it has 1,100 prosecutions of tax dodgers in the pipeline. Last year it secured 1,200 prosecutions, resulting in prison sentences of 407 years. Those prosecuted included barristers, accountants, lawyers, bankers, medical consultants, people hiding money offshore, money launderers and smugglers. Two out of five of those convicted had dodged more than £50,000 of tax. So what about the criticism that HMRC only has 35 wealthy people either in court or waiting to be prosecuted for tax evasion, despite having 26,000 staff working on enforcement and compliance? Well, the figure is correct, but the explanation from the tax office is that all of the 35 have wealth of at least £1m. In other words, the number isn't as small as it looks because the people involved are from a tiny proportion of the population. No doubt critics will say they need to target more people in this well-off bracket.

Article share tools

Chancellor hails 'international tax haven blacklist'

Getty Images

There has been an international agreement to blacklist tax havens at an IMF and World Bank meeting in Washington, according to Chancellor George Osborne.

Today we've got an agreement on an international blacklist of tax havens, and that means the whole world can take action against those who aren't playing by the rules, and the world has just got a much colder place for those hotpots of international tax evasion."

George OsborneChancellor

British territories like the British Virgin Islands and crown dependencies like Guernsey "would definitely be on that blacklist if they don't comply with the rules" he added.

Article share tools

The European Central Bank has not seen evidence that its monetary policies are creating asset bubbles, ECB President Mario Draghi has said.

"While accommodative monetary policies over an extended horizon may have unintended consequences for certain sectors in the form of excessive risk-taking and misaligned asset prices, we do not currently see any broad-based evidence of excesses in the behaviour of banks and other financial institutions and valuations of euro area asset prices."

Video: Football star's biotechnology venture

Article share tools

Mars' once a week warning 'unambitious'

Thinkstock

Some reaction to Mars - the company that makes Dolmio and Uncle Ben's - saying some of its products shouldn't be eaten more than once a week.

Professor John Ashton, the President of the Faculty of Public Health, says processed food companies have been forced to introduce better labelling, but what's really needed is a proper commitment to producing wholesome food by reducing the amount of salt and fat in foods:

We have to welcome it but it's not going to sort it out. It's unambitious compared with what's really needed. We haven't had a public health driven food policy since the Second World War when we actually had a balanced diet and a wholesome diet for the whole population and arguably in times of great duress of the Second World War the nation as a whole was better nourished than ever before or since."

"HRADF's advisors will evaluate, per terms and criteria stipulated in the process letter, the above expressions of interest and submit to HRADF's board of directors their recommendation as to which candidates qualify for the next phase," it added.

Article share tools

Bombardier shares jump 16% after Delta order report

Getty Images

Bombardier shares have jumped 16.3% in early trading following a Wall Street Journal report that the Canadian plane and train-maker is about to secure its largest order for CSeries jets from US airline Delta.

A final agreement between Atlanta-based Delta and Bombardier for 75 firm orders and options for 50 more of its 100-150 seat CSeries planes is expected at the end of April, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

How one person can become two

Article share tools

Oil prices fall ahead of producers' meeting

Oil prices fell on Friday in thin trade, report Reuters, as analysts said a weekend meeting of major oil exporters would do little to help clear global oversupply quickly even though it would provide a floor for the market.

Oil producers - led by top exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia - will meet in Qatar on Sunday to discuss freezing output around current levels in an effort to contain a glut that sees some 1.5 million barrels of crude produced every day over and above global demand.

It would be the first joint action by major OPEC and non-OPEC producers in 15 years although Iran has refused to participate, saying it wants to rebuild its output to pre-sanctions levels.

Article share tools

FTSE falls back

Getty Images

The FTSE 100 is losing ground as the day wears on and is now down 0.5%, or 32 points, at 6,332 points. The market is being dragged down by house builders, with Berkeley Group the biggest faller, off 3.5%, with Barratt Developments down 2.7%.

Dressed for success

Article share tools

Volkswagen's other problem

Getty Images

Christian Stadler of Warwick Business School says that although Volkswagen's market share in Europe has hit a five-year low, it could have been worse in the wake of the emissions scandal. "As past history of scandals has shown, people are often quick to move on and forget," he says.

A bigger concern for VW is its lack of a new SUV, in Prof Stadler's view: "In China it does not really have a cheap mid-range SUV that the market is after. This is a problem it has been aware of for years, but when challenged about it, things always seem to be another year away. Volkswagen really need to get this right moving forward as this is perhaps a much bigger issue than the decline in European sales."

Article share tools

LGBT inclusion 'a work in progress'

Lloyd's of London chief executive Inga Beale topped an annual list of the top 100 LGBT executives last year. She has been telling the Stonewall workplace conference today that LGBT inclusion is "still a work in progress" in the UK.

Article share tools

Where is the US?

Robert Barrington, executive director of Transparency International UK, has given its view on the tax crackdown announced last night by the big five European economies.

Although they have committed to getting more countries on board, the US is notably absent. The UK’s own weak spot is continued secrecy in the overseas territories and crown dependencies, and the announcement strongly increases the pressure on the UK Government to act on its own back yard if it wants others to act. Once the information has been shared, law enforcement authorities will also needed suitable legal instruments such as unexplained wealth orders, which means that once money or property of suspicious origin has been identified it can be quickly frozen. All eyes will now be on the PM’s anti-corruption summit in May to see whether he can persuade other countries to sign up to transparency, and whether he can move his own overseas territories.

Article share tools

'We have to impose our will'

Today Programme

BBC Radio 4

Getty Images

More from Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK on what he thinks a really effective tax crackdown should look like. "We have to be able to prove that we can collect data on who really owns the companies which are registered in the UK and which are registered in our tax havens," he tells Today.

"That means we have to impose our will with regard to this issue, on those tax havens who are not complying, all of whom are celebrating this week that David Cameron has backed off requiring them to have registers of beneficial ownership that can be readily accessed by UK law enforcement agencies and we also have to make sure that our own register is absolutely accurate.

"There is no will on the part of the UK government to enforce the new requirements to disclose beneficial ownership."